Maybe Trump Paid No Taxes

The Clintons released their latest tax return on Friday, showing an adjusted gross income of $10.6 million for 2015, and $3.6 million in federal taxes paid, an effective tax rate of about 35 percent.

So far we can only guess about Trump’s taxes. Reasons for his secrecy include speculation that his business isn’t as successful as he says, or that he possibly paid no taxes:

New York Times Columnist James Stewart: “Trump, as a prominent and active developer, can take advantage of some of the most generous tax breaks in the federal tax code to reduce his reported income to near zero, or even report a loss.”

 

Share
Avatar photo

Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

53 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
tony
8 years ago

For anyone who needs a laugh this morning, Mrs. Badass herself 

https://youtu.be/GJqMgWHyk80

jace
8 years ago

Probably paid no taxes and made no charitable donations.

Katherine Graham Cracker
8 years ago

The Trump Train needs a new engineer

Flatus
8 years ago

I don’t know if it’s universal, but where I was, elected politicians weren’t employees of the place where they were elected–they were self-employed people. I didn’t receive a w-2 at the end of the year, I got a 1099. I had a city credit card to take care of expenses beyond my monthly expense allowance. The only thing that was taxable was the amount on my 1099 because I always fully used my expense allowance on city business. If I hadn’t. the excess would have been taxable as well.

Campaign expenses were not deductible. Sorry ’bout that.

Katherine Graham Cracker
8 years ago

It depends what office.  Some people are full time employees –the sheriff, the da, the members of the Board of Supervisors

they are employees

patd
8 years ago

Katherine Graham Cracker
8 years ago

Troll has no concept of the truth.  But the Tax returns will have facts.

He said Romney should release his returns and when he did then Trump said he shouldn’t have and during this campaign he thought the Romney returns were a Yuge factor in the Romney loss except when he is saying it’s because Romney choked

patd
8 years ago

more than likely he has lied and is afraid he’ll be charged with willfully evading federal income tax which is a felony 26 U.S.C. § 7203

again, imo, he’s more concerned about the big house than the white house.

nice little article about fibbing to the feds in last year’s article from forbes: The Truth About Lying On Your Tax Return

patd
8 years ago

craig, do they mention anything about his twitter finger twitching uncontrollably because they won’t let him respond to lizzie’s latest slam about “pathetic coward” afraid of “losing to a girl”?

unusual that he’s not slammed her back.

Blue Bronc
8 years ago

patd – you are on the same thinking I am.  His tax returns would show he is a tax cheat and a liar.  If any accountant would see his returns, all the forms too, they could point out where he did what he always does with his mouth – lies.  Or maybe Putin is his tax preparer.

Katherine Graham Cracker
8 years ago

Troll’s lawyer must think the same thing – he has advised his client not to allow  public discussion of his taxes.

Sturgeone
8 years ago

He knows his tax returns are legal else he wouldn’t have gone into this…….embarrassing might be a hoss of a different collar……

i learned a country song one time just so I could say the word “hoss” with a semi straight face…….

Sturgeone
8 years ago

 

Bob and Waylon

patd
8 years ago

Jamie, tho’t of you and some other way-with-words trail types who might enjoy being introduced to this guy if you haven’t met up with him before.  he’s written a lot on language from a witty pov.  here’s a sample
Richard Lederer :
What do you make of the fact that we can talk about certain things and ideas only when they are absent? Once they appear, our blessed English language doesn’t allow us to describe them….. Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, sheveled, gruntled, chalant, plussed, ruly, gainly, maculate, kempt, pecunious, peccable, or souciant?

English is a language populated with a lot of heads without tails and odds without ends. In his poem “Gloss,” David McCord spoofs the ability of the English language to identify negatives but not the corresponding positives:

I know a little man both ept and ert.
An intro-? Extro-? No, he’s just a vert.
Sheveled and couth and kempt, pecunious, ane,
His image trudes upon
the ceptive brain.

When life turns sipid
and the mind is traught,
The spirit soars as I would
sist it ought.
Chalantly then, like any gainly goof,
My digent self is sertive, choate, loof.

 

and for some reason this fact that “we can talk about certain things and ideas only when they are absent” reminds me of the current dilemma in critterville.  curious.  identifying negatives but not corresponding positives also reminds me of the present political discourse.

xrepublican
8 years ago

2015 deductions for the trump election industry :

1. 174 hours of services of 29 ‘highest quality’ prostituted men and women – Nevada, Amsterdam, New Zealand, and Macau
2. 1 kilo of ‘highest quality’ hashish – Amsterdam; 13.75 pounds of ‘highest quality’ medical marijuana – Colorado
3. Melania’s latest face lift, breast lift, tummy lift, and ass lift. Highest quality, believe me
4. Donald’s latest face lift, manboob lift, tummy lift, ass lift, hair transplant, and large hand transplant
5. Melania’s Serbian Princess wardrobe
6. 1/2 Gov Palin and Julian Assange retainer fees
7. A five gallon bucket of orange colored pancake makeup
8. 3000 hours of ‘highest quality’ actors to portray ‘beatnik’ demonstrators
9. $10 M!LL!ON per trump child for their televised Dad worship.
10. 1 gallon pail of Valium capsules.

Katherine Graham Cracker
8 years ago

Is the valium for people who work for him

patd
8 years ago

Bob Wills recorded this song at his first session for Brunswick’s Vocalion label. For some reason, two years later he recorded it again. The first features the horns, while the second one features fiddles and steel. I believe on the first version Leon is playing a guitar on his lap with a steel bar. Compare his two solos, and you’ll see what I mean.

Bink
8 years ago

Maybe his tax returns went to Moskva.

patd
8 years ago

Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.

Bink
8 years ago

The GOP literally nominated a Russian stooge for POTUS.  Dissolve it!

(stooge of the Russians, excuse me)

Bink
8 years ago

Also, i find it serendipitous that NBC —— up their coverage of the International Festival of Organized Crime.  Maybe it will lead to less ad revenue for the IOC to embezzle in two years.

 

I read an internet comment/suggestion that a lot of Olympic hosting controversies and problems would be allieviated if they were held in one static location, every “Olympiad” (crooks have their own calendar, ha).  Great idea, but they’d never do that because they need a fresh set of marks to hose.

Bink
8 years ago

Phew, cathartic!  Good day, all.

Sturgeone
8 years ago

Hosing the marks…….otherwise known as business as usual…….

if you look around the table and can’t spot the mark…..it’s you.

—sock-eye Walsh, noted myrtle beach gambler

patd
8 years ago

re Olympics. think out of the box or shall we say think out of the one-city-gets-all venue and do…as this article suggests

away with the notion of one host city altogether, it might. Send beach volleyball to Rio permanently, where there are actual beaches. Hold the fencing competition in Italy, where many of its gold medalists are born. Move swimming to Australia, where it’s a nationwide obsession. Host soccer in South Africa, where the 2010 World Cup was a moment of national pride. Let each country bear the cost of one set of events at a time instead of dozens.

Despite potential objections that the plan undemocratically violates the spirit of bringing athletes of the world together, it actually promotes a greater sense of equality. A one-sport, one-city policy would mitigate the ongoing wasteful bid process, which takes years and can require $100 million worth of research alone. Indeed, those costs and a dwindling appetite for hosting the games have combined to reduce the number of cities bidding in the first place.

or consider 4 Olympics in four different locales spread over 4 years. an indoor winter 1st year, outdoor winter next, indoor summer and then outdoor summer.  spread the gold.

Flatus
8 years ago

I don’t consider myself a prude—which means I probably am. But, I am embarrassed for the girls and women who must wear that damned butt floss as a condition of participating on our Olympic team.

Sturgeone
8 years ago

Sock-Eye’s progenitor was that gambler in Wm. Price Fox’s short story contained in SOUTHERN FRIED + 6.

the one who, when he could no longer afford shock therapy to calm his shaking card hands, had his assistant hook up two wires from the coil or generator of his ’54 Olds to being taped up to his temples, and had his assistant get into the car and turn her over…….the assistant, having gotten into the car and closed the door with the radio on could not see him twitching around nor hear him screaming he just laid on the starter……RR–rrrr-rrrr-rrr–rrr……

patd
8 years ago

flatus, just be glad they don’t hold to traditions of the ancient Olympics.. au naturel and other interesting activities.

wsj:
The Strange Rites of the Ancient Olympics
Naked runners, deadly competitions and banquets to honor the gods: The original Olympics were far different from the modern Games

Sturgeone
8 years ago

I can hear that bloody olds turning over as if it were right there in the parking lot…….

I’ve heard enough of them turning over I guess…….

Sturgeone
8 years ago

If you’ve not read wm price fox, while I can understand, I cannot condone.

Sturgeone
8 years ago

I am a prude……..but I’ve learned how to just keep it to myself…….

patd
8 years ago

 

🙂

Flatus
8 years ago

Pat, I wanted to hope that the ancient Greek games had become ‘better’ over the past 2300-years.

This morning’s Journal has a horrendous exploration of the terror raged by Boko Haram. That article starts on page one.

As if that was not enough for one day, later on in the ‘happy’ pages, they review The Devil’s Diary–the diary of one of Hitler’s head anti-Semites.

GrannyMumantoog
8 years ago

Tronald Dump would be caught with his financial pants down if his tax returns were made public. While they may be technically “legal” there are probably numerous exaggerations, bogus-not-verifiable entries and out & out lies that would only become apparent during public scrutiny. In other words there are people he wouldn’t want to see what he claims on his returns because they would know better. Also, it would show what a deadbeat he is in terms of charity and what a bad businessman he is when his actual income and expenditures are revealed. Not to mention how many tricks he uses to get away with not paying any taxes. All in all I think his tax returns would be the end of him in the eyes of everyone but himself.

Pat: Love the word post! I bet 90% of trump supporters wouldn’t even understand the poem. I have a clear picture of them all scratching their heads.

Flatus: Proud Prude here, who thinks thongs should only be worn on the feet! LOL!

Sturgeone
8 years ago

Pat…. That illustration would be for that absurdly hilarious story entitled “The Buzzard’s Lope” about a Local Saturday night square dance type situation up in or near Columbia, SC……

Sturgeone
8 years ago

Fox’s stories take place in the fifties, maybe barely breaking into the sixties……except for the novels, of course….so that illustration is a modern rendition of the people fox wrote about….it wasn’t that way at all back then when people went out…..they didn’t look like that…..they looked more like Elvis and Johnny cash…….

Sturgeone
8 years ago

Or Carl Perkins.

Sturgeone
8 years ago

Or Roy Orbison.

Flatus
8 years ago

“Would that it were so simple…”

Jamie! You must read page 62 of today’s The Economist. A Robinson article subtitled “The strange tale of the subjunctive in English”

The bottom line, if it was up to me, I’d say to hell with all two of the pretentious usages.

Sturgeone
8 years ago

A goober with a job is fit to be around…….a goober without a job…….well, he’s just a goober.

Bink
8 years ago

You might like reddit, Pat.  Mostly positive stuff on there- trolls get downvoted off the feed.

Flatus
8 years ago

Sturg,

Mr Armstrong, my 8th grade science teacher, had an Oldsmobile. He’d sometimes give me a ride home. He’d love telling me,”Flatus, if this car had claws, it could climb a tree!”

He was an old WW1 pilot who obviously believed what he was saying. He passed away during my senior year.

Blue Bronc
8 years ago

The womens “swimsuits” are probably more aerodynamic.  Course look at the mens suits.  I have not seen a guy event yet so I do not know.

Here is something to consider.  Maybe the guy under the dead orange squirrel did not file tax returns.

xrepublican
8 years ago

Regarding the naked and the dead, the actual Olympics included human sacrifice. Olympic boxing was particularly lethal. The Christian fanatic, Eastern ‘Roman’ Emperor Theodosius II, put a bloody end to the bloody Olympics, and didn’t forget to make off with the Olympic treasury. With no money left, the ‘amateur spirit’, the ‘love of the game’, evaporated like a bad dream.

Screw the greedy international olympic committee, the ersatz tradition, and the balderdashing chariot it rode in on. Someone ought to steal all their money, and let the international tv networks run the show. It’d be much cheaper, and therefore less likely to be dishonest, and less likely to teach dishonesty to future generations.

patd
8 years ago

bb, how do you know the orange squirrel is dead?  he could be a very talented ventriloquist sitting on an enormous dummy

patd
8 years ago

“let the international tv networks run the show. It’d be much cheaper, and therefore less likely to be dishonest, and less likely to teach dishonesty to future generations.”

xr, you’ve got to be kidding. have you forgotten what they’ve done to the debates?  to the news?  maybe if commercials were banned, if each broadcasting corp were allowed and limited to only one or two events…maybe

patd
8 years ago

btw, what’s with the drumpf’s extra long red tie….  compensation? subliminal transubstantiation?

patd
8 years ago

nbc news

GOP Senate candidates are ahead in Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and Ohio, all states where Trump trailed Hillary Clinton in the same surveys.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll put Ohio Sen. Rob Portman ahead of his Democratic opponent, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, 48 to 43 percent, even as Trump trailed Clinton 38 percent to 43 percent in the Buckeye State. Veteran Sen. Chuck Grassley has the support of 52 percent of Iowans, compared to Trump’s 37 percent.

In North Carolina, incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr trails Democrat Deborah Ross by 2 percent, compared to Trump’s 9 percent deficit. In Pennsylvania, incumbent GOP Sen. Pat Toomey is behind Democrat Katie McGinty by 4 percent, while Trump is down by 11.

Jamie44
8 years ago

Patd

Hadn’t run into him before but now I have his webpage:  Verbivore 

His article today is sports terms used in daily language.

Jamie44
8 years ago

Flatus

Have you seen Hail caesar? There is a whole comedy scene of a cowboy movie star badly cast in a drawing room comedy trying to learn to say:

Would that it twere so simple.  It’s hilarious.

Ha! Just read the article you mentioned and the last paragraph references that Hail Caesar scene. See the movie if you haven’t.

dvitale300
8 years ago

Corey
8 years ago

So, I edited my education info on Facebook to say “Studied at Trump University” and no one has noticed it yet. 🙂